Chapter 16

Mengshan Shrine, this was the name of the shrine Li Mang had intruded upon.

The shrine was not large, and under the night sky, the traces of time could still be faintly seen, suggesting it had stood for many years. The faint scent of sandalwood informed the world that the incense offerings at this shrine were not abundant.

"Who’s there!"

Li Mang had just entered the main hall when a voice bellowed from inside. An elderly man in his seventies rose from a mat, dressed in ancient, simple clothing, clearly the shrine keeper. Despite his white hair, his eyes were unusually sharp, and the piercing gaze made Li Mang feel a momentary daze.

"This shrine keeper is not simple!" Li Mang thought to himself.

"Bang!"

The shrine’s main door was directly broken open, and a female ghost floated in. The atmosphere inside the shrine made her slightly uncomfortable, but that was all.

The elderly shrine keeper was instantly shocked and terrified upon seeing the female ghost. His face turned grim as he asked, "Why have you come here!"

"Old man, you dare to frame me for murder, bringing me to the brink of death. Don’t think I don’t know anything. You and your kind deserve to die!" the female ghost said coldly.

"What!" Li Mang was shocked and quickly retreated to the side, looking at the elderly man in disbelief. The real murderer wasn’t the female ghost; they had been mistaken all along? But why did the shrine keeper kill? For revenge? Or for some other reason? Li Mang was momentarily confused.

The shrine keeper’s gaze darkened, and when he looked at Li Mang, there was a clear intent to kill. However, perhaps he felt Li Mang was no threat, so he turned his attention back to the female ghost and coldly said, "Female ghost, don’t spread your lies, or don’t blame me for sending you to the afterlife!"

"Haha, send me to the afterlife? You?" the female ghost replied with a cold laugh, not bothering to waste more words. With a cold sneer, she lunged at the elderly shrine keeper.

"Hey!" The shrine keeper shouted, grabbing the duster from the altar and lashing it at the female ghost. Though the duster was light, it was clearly a magical artifact, glowing with purifying energy.

"Humph!" However, the female ghost caught it with her bare hands.

"Swish!" The duster, encountering the ghostly aura, glowed brightly, as if trying to break free.

The female ghost felt slightly uncomfortable, as the duster was a tool that restrained her. But with her superior skills, she ignored it and used brute force to fling the elderly shrine keeper onto the altar. The thick stone slab of the altar shattered, either due to the force or its age.

"Cough, cough!" The shrine keeper spat out several mouthfuls of blood, looking at the female ghost in horror and instinctively crawling backward. He had long known the female ghost was powerful, but he never expected her to be so much stronger than him.

At this moment, the shrine keeper hated Li Mang, the rash intruder, for bringing the female ghost. He glared at Li Mang with murderous intent.

"This is too weak!" Li Mang couldn’t help but comment. He had hoped they would fight each other, allowing him to benefit, but he never expected the old man to be so weak, not even half as powerful as Daoist Zhang, yet more arrogant.

After some thought, Li Mang quietly left. He didn’t dare use the main door, fearing it would agitate the female ghost. Instead, he entered a side room, hoping to leave through a window or back door. If the shrine keeper were just an ordinary person, perhaps a ‘good person,’ Li Mang wouldn’t have left so quickly, but since he was the real culprit, Li Mang felt no sympathy.

Mengshan Shrine was a temple from the Republican era, with no back door. The room had only one window, reinforced with stainless steel, making it impossible to escape without using brute force.

But using brute force would alert the female ghost outside, ruining his escape plan. What should he do? Li Mang was growing anxious.

"Ah!!!!"

"Rip!!!"

Suddenly, a series of惨叫声 and the sound of limbs being torn apart came from outside. The shrine keeper’s cries grew weaker... Li Mang’s heart was racing, extremely uneasy, and the sound of his heartbeat could be heard from a distance.

"Shanhai Jing, come out quickly!"

Li Mang had no choice but to take this step; otherwise, he would have no chance of escaping. He didn’t want to follow the shrine keeper’s fate. He admitted he was afraid of death, but that was a natural instinct, nothing to be ashamed of.

Sure enough, not long after Li Mang hid in the Shanhai Jing, the female ghost, covered in blood, appeared silently. Her mouth and teeth were stained red, making her look even more terrifying. Perhaps nourished by the blood, her originally weak soul had recovered, but her eyes had also turned blood red, and her malevolent aura had grown stronger.

"Rip!"

The female ghost frantically searched the room, tearing the mosquito net into pieces, and destroying the bed, wardrobe, and everything else.

"Where did that damn kid go!"

The female ghost frowned, having searched the entire room but found no trace of Li Mang, not even his scent. This was strange, as the window was intact and showed no sign of his escape. It was as if he had vanished, which was truly baffling.

However, the female ghost was not about to give up. She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, they turned blue, scanning the room like a scanner.

"Humph!" The female ghost coldly snorted and slapped the wooden bed.

With a loud crack, the bed shattered, and the wood splintered. The female ghost’s gaze then focused on the floor beneath the bed. She lifted her foot and stomped down hard—“Boom!”

The floor collapsed, revealing a hole.

However, this was not the underground cellar she had expected. Instead, there was a large locked chest. It was clearly not a disguised exit.

"Rise!" The female ghost used her mental power to lift the wooden chest high and then suddenly released it—“Boom!”

The wooden chest fell to the ground and shattered, revealing its contents. They were not Li Mang but stacks of red banknotes, even gold and jewelry.

There were quite a few hundred-dollar bills, and with the gold and jewelry, the value was in the millions. It was hard to believe a low-profile shrine keeper could have so much wealth.

If an ordinary person saw these things, they might be dazzled, but to the female ghost, they were just scraps of paper. In a fit of anger, she slapped the stack, tearing half the bills into pieces, and the rest scattered.

"Brat, I’ve found you, come out!" The female ghost looked around, her voice cold, but her face was full of anger. After chasing for so long, Li Mang had still escaped, which was hard for her to accept, and her anger was boiling.

But clearly, her strategy didn’t work. After waiting for two minutes, Li Mang still didn’t show up, making the female ghost feel as if she were seeing a ghost. Her eyes flashed, and her body gradually faded, as if she were leaving.

Meanwhile, the soldiers from the military base had arrived at the roadside in front of the Mengshan execution ground, gathering before Daoist Zhang and Bao Ren. The commander organized the troops and saluted the two, saying loudly, "Please give your orders, sir!"

"Who are these ‘sirs’?" many soldiers thought, these were just two charlatans, one even wearing a wizard’s robe, completely destroying their sense of reality.

"You all follow me!" Daoist Zhang gave a mysterious order and led the way, following the residual ghostly aura left by the female ghost. The soldiers looked at each other in confusion, unsure what the ‘charlatan’ was up to, but seeing the commander follow the order, they also started to move.

Li Mang was unaware of the events outside. After entering the world of the Shanhai Jing, he immediately went to the source of the Liju River, frantically searching the rocky area.

The wounds on his body still hurt terribly, and the blackening was getting worse, reminding him that he couldn’t stay too long. The Zhaoyao Mountain had no medicine for this, and he needed to return to the real world quickly for Daoist Zhang to save him.

What Li Mang was looking for was a turtle, preferably an old one. Daoist Zhang had once said that the blood of a hundred-year-old turtle had extremely powerful yang energy, which was the bane of ghosts. However, such turtles were hard to find in the real world, so he had to use black dog blood as a substitute, which was much less effective and one of the reasons for his failure in catching the ghost.

But this was the world of the Shanhai Jing, an incredible space. More importantly, just yesterday, he had seen a small turtle crawl up from downstream. Though small, its shell was fierce, suggesting it was quite old.

So Li Mang boldly deduced that the source of the Liju River, in the crevices of the rocks, should hide the turtle he needed. Therefore, he immediately came here to search.

"Swish..."

"None!"

"Bang..."

"None!"...

Li Mang moved rock after rock, and while he found some strange small fish in the crevices, there were no turtles. His wounds worsened, and his strength and spirit diminished as time passed, making him increasingly anxious.

...

PS: Join the Shanhai Jing group [362-104-434].

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